Integrating Physical Security and Cyber Security For Corporations

Despite the reality that cybersecurity and physical security both depend on each other, some companies still treat them as separate functions. Until recently, the technology to integrate cyber and physical security was not yet possible.

Companies Now Consider Information As The Most Valuable Asset

In the past ten years, there has been a vital change in what is considered to be an asset. Many companies thought of their most valuable assets to be physical. Today, with the exponential growth of the internet and the vast number of connected devices, along with the massive amount of data, companies now consider information to be the most valuable asset.

Because of the convergence of cyber and physical security has already occurred at the technical level. It is long overdue at the structure level. Continuing to treat cyber and physical security as separate areas, will most likely result in overlapping responsibilities and poor communication.

In the past companies would safeguard their assets with cameras, access control, and security personnel. Today, a company must take drastic measures because most of these attacks occur online and usually hidden. Although attacks will usually occur separately, sometimes an attacker that gains physical access to a computer, a server, or even an employee will almost always take advantage of that access to further their cyber attack efforts.

Physical Security Depends Greatly On Cyber Security

As you can see, physical security depends greatly on cyber security and vice-versa. The sooner businesses can integrate their physical and cyber security departments to work together, the lesser risk a company may have on their overall business and their ability to manage risk.

If a company’s physical and cyber security departments don't work together, they may very well miss out on valuable information that could benefit both departments. Once a business decides to move forward with integration, systems can now be combined rather than having themseparate from each other. Although companies can save money by integrating physical and cyber security, it is challenging to put an amount on safeguarding a company's physical and cyber assets.

The first step a company can take towards integration is to begin to use a tool that will empower their security teams and give them the ability to detect and monitor physical and cyber threats together. thred is a leading digital threat investigation used worldwide by companies, higher education institutions, sports teams, and even law enforcement agencies. With thred you can search the dark web safely and anonymously, protect employees & executives, protect your physical and digital assets, monitor social media, and protect your brand reputation.